Miriyam is an anthropologist slash internet researcher slash activist. For 'We can analyze the world till we drop, but the challenge is to change it' in the words of Groucho...

Saturday, 11 April 2009

THE BLAIR WAR CRIMES FOUNDATION --Sign the petition

John Pilger, David Halpin, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Ken Loach, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Lindsey German, Ben Griffin, Dr Nawal Saadawi, Haifa Zangana, Dr Kamil Mahdi, Bruce Kent, and other citizens of Spain, Argentine, USA, and UK, support a Blair War Crimes Foundation to seek signatures for a petition to the United Nations General Assembly and the UK Attorney General, to uphold the UN Charter, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, and International Law, and to indict Tony Blair for war crimes.

BWCF - THE BLAIR WAR CRIMES FOUNDATION

To The President of The United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, and The Attorney General of the United Kingdom, and their successors in office.

RE ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIRWe, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law, especially in respect of:-

1: 1949 Geneva Convention IV: Article 146The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention.

2: 1907 Hague Convention IV: Article 3A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said regulations shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all the acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces.

We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.

We are concerned that without justice and respect for the rule of law, the future for us and our progeny in a lawless world is bleak, as revealed by recent US declarations about the use of torture and the events of December 2008 in Gaza show.

The following are our sample complaints relating to the Iraq War 2003-2009:

1: Deceit and conspiracy for war, and providing false news to incite passions for war, causing in the order of one million deaths, 4 million refugees, countless maimings and traumas.

disclaimer

Although I'm researching the development and usage of the internet - including the booming online/Blog communities - working on my own homepage is not (really) a priority. Alas: lack of time is a 'real', 'non-virtual', 'offline' disadvantage, and with what is left I prioritise offline engagement, so bare with me...

Bio Miriyam Aouragh

As an undergrad I studied anthropology/non-Western Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (specialized in what was then called 'Ethnic and Minority Studies'); during my graduate studies I took courses in Anthropology & Sociology at Goldsmiths University of London, and Arabic and Politics at Birzeit University. The MA thesis concerned the question of national identity amongst university students in Palestine during the Oslo era after the First Intifada. I worked as a
counselor in Amsterdam [setting up projects and policies vis-a-vis minority youth, something I cared about politically and personally. With local politics I couldn't change much of the structural
inequalities, I got more involved in activism and at the same time an academic itch started. In 2001 I embarked on a PhD research regarding the implications of the Internet in Palestine. I got involved with anti-war and anti-racism campaigns. After the Phd research I taught 'Race, Racism and Islamophobia in the Netherlands' . In 2008 I was awarded the Rubicon grant and since 2009 a postdoc fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. I study the implementation of Web 2.0 in political activist organizing in Palestine and Lebanon and I follow the impact of the internet on complex political dynamics in the Arab world. Apart from research I lecture Cyber Politics and Mass Media at the Oxford Middle East Centre University. In 2013 I will start a new research (Leverhulme) about the role of new/online media before, during and after the Arab revolutions at CAMRI (University of Westminster).

Guernica

Picasso's magnificent piece, which at once illustrates and protests the insanity of war, is a reminder for all